Warehouses and warehouse systems have been developed and used by many retailers and other entities for storing items or materials for distribution to customers. A warehouse management system can be used to control the movement of materials within a warehouse and process the associated transactions, including shipping, receiving, putaway and picking
Warehouse management systems can utilize barcode scanners, mobile computers, wireless LANs (Local Access Networks) and similar technologies to monitor the flow of items or materials within the warehouse. A warehouse management system can provide a set of computerized procedures to handle the receipt of stock and returns into a warehouse facility, manage the logical representation of the physical storage facilities (e.g. racking etc.), manage the stock within the facility and enable a seamless link to order processing and logistics management in order to pick, pack and ship product out of the facility.
Warehouse systems may utilize conveyors, such as those including belts, rollers, or other suitable technologies, to convey items between locations in the warehouse for storage, shipping, and other procedures. In some cases, picking zones are located adjacent to a conveyor to enable pickers (e.g., humans) to pick products and place the products in a container which then is circulated to other pick zones for additional product picking Such configurations are typically in a loop, resulting in the container being transported past the pick zones between the current zone and the destination. If there is a disruption of flow at one of the pick zones, such as due to insufficient capacity to pick the products rapidly, then work at many of the pick zones may be temporarily halted while the zone with insufficient capacity completes the backlog of pick jobs.
Belt conveyors have been used for hundreds of years, such as to move sacks of grain. In more recent times, roller conveyors have been developed. Belt, roller and other conveyor are common and use motors, gravity and the like for transporting objects. In many ‘modern’ distribution centers miles of conveyors snake past racks of inventory. Workers pick items and cases and place the items in totes or cartons on the conveyor (sometimes called pick and pass) or workers pick items and cases and place the items directly onto the conveyor which carries them to sortation areas where orders are consolidated. The order picking process is functionally single threaded and operated in an inflexible fixture. Order cycle-times are often long. Also, if there is a disruption of flow at one of the pick zones, such as due to insufficient capacity to pick the products rapidly, then work at all of the pick zones may be temporarily halted while the zone with insufficient capacity complete the backlog of pick jobs.
Some example types of conveyor systems include receiving induction, pick module, and complex front end conveyor systems. Receiving induction systems use a single induction conveyor and involve multiple tote touches (or human interaction) with mobile floor receiving stations. Any trash on the conveyor is manually removed and off-loading of excess empty boxes can be difficult. Pick module systems may be highly congested, confusing, having a minimal tote buffer capacity, frequent main line backups, and an inability to use side conveyors efficiently. Complex front end conveyor systems involve complex routing for floor to floor deliveries, multiple scanner and decision points, and a network of conveyors with difficult access for error recovery. Thus, many conventional conveyor systems have a number of drawbacks, leading to more human interaction, less efficiency, and more time spent completing orders.